Ugandan Discussions And Other Dubious Practices

YouGov Question Of The Week

For each of the following phrases, please say if you think they are appropriate or not appropriate for use in conversation nowadays.

Siberian tickle
Double Dutch
Chinese whispers
Mexican wave
Irish twins
Dutch courage
Spanish practices
Ugandan discussions
Russian roulette
Irish exit
French kissing
Chinese walls
Going Dutch
Paddy wagon
Indian summer

I haven’t even heard of some of those and had to google them. Now I will look forward to some Ugandan Discussions tonight after a bit of Dutch courage of course.

I wonder if the Mexican team will walk out in protest when they start doing the Mexican wave at the Cycling World Cup this weekend? Our dog training is stuffed, we were practising not only German turns but Japanese ones last week.

Oddly there’s no mention of a Brazilian on the list.

Tonight I meet up with my old school friend. There is now only the two of us now after the death of one of our number the other week. We raise a glass to him. 

Then with all this talk of sexually inappropriate behaviour in the media, I amuse my friend with my contribution to the #MeToo movement because its not just the ladies that get subjected to inappropriate behaviour. It was meted out regularly in some of the near all female environments I used to work in back in the early 1990’s.

The 50-something women who ran the Data Entry Department in the company I worked for staffed it with about thirty young girls and although the company tried to get some lads in there she wouldn’t stand for it. Any lads who were employed weren’t made to feel welcome and very soon left. 

I dreaded going down there to fix their computer issues as this woman always tried to embarrass you by commenting on your dress style, your hair, your aftershave, your height... anything really. Then always asking about your love life. She used to run a Blind Date style service (as in the TV programme) among her younger colleagues which you could end up in as an unwilling participant if your weren't careful.

Then there was the naked calendars on the wall, of men of course, but the shocking thing was they used to cut pictures from the company magazine and superimpose the heads of the management on the calendars. I don’t know how they got away with it. 

(Tuesday 7^th November)

Meteorological Russian Roulette

Today L works from home, shutting herself away from the phones, with the intention of cracking on with her work and of course kicking footballs...

Actually she has a plan to avoid this by taking the boys on a really long walk first. I hope she knows what she’s doing because you change their morning routine at your peril. Any variation in route is invariably met with a quiet rebellion from Doggo. A sit down protest and 'that look' he does when you veer from the usual. While MD always has his eye on the clock, counting down the seconds to breakfast time, which he thinks is always overdue. He’s a bit of a diva when he’s hungry. That new Snickers advert is so him.



L contemplates feeding them first but then MD would just want his breakfast, again, when they got back. Can of worms.

At the moment tonight’s run isn’t looking too much fun. We’ve had some pretty torrential rain today between the sun showers. It’s sun one moment, heavy rain the next, then back to sun. It’s meteorological Russian roulette.

At 5pm, we appear to be between thunderstorms, so there’s no excuse really for not going for it. The dry spell lasts for about 45 minutes and then the rain gets progressively harder. Still I manage my target of eight miles and then shelter in the bus stop when the worst of the thunder and lightning arrives.

It’s debatable whether any bus will have me but there isn’t any arriving anyway. I wait 30 minutes for the ‘every 10 minutes’ bus by which time my calves are getting well cramped with all the hanging around in the wet.

When a bus does arrive, it takes an age to get home. Derby Road has been blocked by a fallen tree and a diversion is in place. This and the resulting gridlock, explains the lack of buses.

I get home to find that luckily the start to the England v Sweden match has also been delayed, seems they’ve had rain too, so I actually still get to see the whole thing.

It’s not a bad match, but it’s so like watching a typical game in the Championship, say Burnley against Watford. I like it, probably because it seems so reassuringly familiar. Then I’m off the sofa as Watford take the lead.

Burnley valiantly fight back and score twice to go in front but Watford aren't finished. They come from behind to secure a famous victory and a fighting chance of a quarter final against one of the Premier League sides, Manchester City or Chelsea or maybe Spain.

(Friday 15th June)